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Angelfish, Discus, Oscars, Jack Dempsey, Rams, (found native in South America, notably the Amazon River Basin) and many of the aquarium fish from Africa's Rift Lakes are fish in the Family Cichlidae. This is a very large family of fishes with a very wide range of diversity. There are about 1,300 species of cichlids which may be found in Central & South America and in Africa. The reason cichlids are found only in these areas is at one time the cichlid ancestors inhabited Gondwana, the huge former southern super-continent where they first evolved before its break-up150 million years ago and probably differentiated into the major lineages 70-95 million years ago. These lands include Madagascar, India, Africa, and South America. Therefore, Cichlids kept in the aquarium are classified by two categories. Old World, meaning South & Central America and New World, referring to African cichlids. The Mbuna species of Africa are neat in that the females pick up the eggs and the fry hatch in her mouth. She won't eat while the eggs and fry are developing. Watching a female release fry and to watch them return to momma for safety is really neat to witness. Cichlids are popular in the aquarium hobby for a four reason.
Posting requests for fish wanted or fish available are services available only to our members. Please Join today. Cichlid Reference Books: |
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As
all know our general supplier for aquarium fish LiveAquaria.com and Drs.
Foster & Smith (same company) ended their online sales business, due to
state online sales tax issues. Thus links on fish for sale
no longer work as 02/22/10.
